Brignol Lindor

Radio Echo 2000

December 3, 2001, in Petit-Goâve, Haiti

A machete-wielding mob hacked to death Lindor, news director of the private station Radio Echo 2000 that is based in the coastal town of Petit-Goâve, some 40 miles west of Port-au-Prince.

At 11 a.m., Lindor and a colleague were driving to one of Lindor's other jobs, as a customs official. Their car was ambushed by supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family (FL) party. Lindor's colleague fled, but Lindor was attacked and killed after he tried to take refuge in the nearby home of a local town counselor.

Lindor hosted the political talk show "Dialogue." He had received numerous threats from local authorities for inviting members of the 15-party opposition coalition Democratic Convergence (CD) to appear on his show.

After Aristide launched a "zero tolerance" anti-crime campaign in June, telling police officers that street criminals caught red-handed could be summarily punished without trial, Petit-Goâve deputy mayor Dumé Bony announced in public that the "zero tolerance" policy should be applied to Lindor. Opposition parties and human rights groups accused Aristide of issuing a carte blanche for extrajudicial executions.

Lindor's December 11 funeral turned violent when police used bludgeons and tear gas on mourners who were shouting anti-Aristide slogans, according to wire reports.